It comes after the authority warned it faces an £83.7 million funding gap and may need four years of near-maximum council tax rises, job losses and wider use of artificial intelligence to balance the books.

Cabinet members were told on Wednesday (September 16) that the council faces mounting financial pressures over the next four years, driven by rising demand for services including social care, school transport and waste collection.

Officers have identified £21.5m of savings through a transformation programme that includes digitising services, cutting office costs and making greater use of technology and AI.

Around 18 jobs could also be lost under the proposals.

Council forecasts show a funding shortfall of £83.7m by 2030 before savings and council tax increases are taken into account, including a £23.3m gap next year.

Reform’s deputy leader and finance chief Darren Grimes told councillors that the authority would maintain a “laser-like focus” on stripping out waste and avoidable costs, while leader Andrew Husband insisted Durham remained in a stronger financial position than many councils across the country.

(Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

However, Labour MP Luke Akehurst said Reform should accept responsibility for some of the challenge now facing County Hall.

The North Durham MP said: “As a local MP I will always put the case to Ministers for more funding for Durham County Council, so that all the costs of delivering public services in an area that has both deprivation and rurality to tackle are properly reflected in the funding formula.

“However, Reform ought to acknowledge that Durham received a very generous funding settlement last year – a real terms increase of 6.7 per cent.

“They made a political choice to use some of this to keep down the annual increase in Council Tax, rather than invest it in services, and their own choice to do this has widened the funding gap they now face.”

(Image: CHRIS BOOTH)

Cllr Amanda Hopgood, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition on Durham County Council, said many of the transformation plans now being promoted by Reform had already been under development before the party took control of the authority.

She said: “The transformation strategy had already been discussed before Reform was elected.

“We fully support the transformation plan for local government but Reform talk a lot about virtue signalling and their obsession with trying to deliver zero council tax rises – we are seeing the consequences of now.

“They set a budget this year knowing that they were creating a future black hole.

“They pleaded for more money from the government, now they’ve got it and they squandered it.”

Durham County Council opposition leader Amanda Hopgood said Reform ‘squandered’ government money. (Image: DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL)

The budget debate comes at a difficult political moment for Reform’s administration.

Three councillors, Lyndsey Fox, Nicole Brown and Paul Sexton, resigned from the party this week and now sit as independents, reducing Reform’s majority on the 98-seat council to just three.

The departures are the latest in a series of resignations, suspensions and defections since Reform swept to power in the 2025 local elections, winning 65 seats and taking control of the authority for the first time.

Cabinet members are expected to begin consulting residents on the council’s financial plans later this month, with final budget decisions due to be taken in February.

The consultation will include proposals for annual council tax increases of up to 4.99 per cent, which officers say would broadly eliminate the authority’s funding gap over the four-year planning period if combined with the planned savings programme.

President Trump said the war in Iran was nearly over as he threatened to implement new tariffs on the entire continent of Europe should Canada join the EU.

The commander-in-chief spoke to reporters on Wednesday, ahead of a scheduled appearance to support Republicans in the midterm elections.

He was asked about the ongoing military operation in the Middle East, which began at the end of February when US and Israeli forces struck Iran. 

‘Well, hopefully we’re toward the end of the war,’ Trump said. ‘They want to make a deal, and we’ll see how that works out.’

When he was then asked about a proposal for Canada to join the EU as an ‘associate member,’ Trump said he found the idea ‘laughable.’

‘Canada has been a terrible trade partner, and no, I don’t see it,’ he said. 

‘And if they do that, if I think it’s at all a hostile act, I will bring very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things,’ the president then warned. 

‘If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,’ he continued.

The US president threatened implementing new tariffs should Canada join the European Union. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are pictured together on Wednesday

Trump said he is hopeful that the war in Iran is almost over. A damaged oil tanker is pictured in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday

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The president’s remarks come just one day after the House approved a war powers resolution that would halt the president’s ability to continue military action without congressional approval or to defend the US or one of its allies from an ‘imminent attack.’

The roll call late on Tuesday night, 220-204, was similar to earlier efforts this summer, with a few more Republicans joining all Democrats voting to bring an end to the conflict. 

None of the resolutions have made it to the president’s desk, where Trump would almost certainly veto the measure.

‘Remember when Donald Trump said that this war would last just a few weeks?’ said Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who served as a Marine during the Iraq War and pushed the resolution forward.

Moulton said it’s time for Congress to ‘actually ask tough questions, as the Constitution directs us to do, rather than be subservient to another warmongering administration.’

But Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, questioned which military resources Democrats would want to remove from the region where he said Iran remains a threat.

Mast said Trump is against ‘forever wars, and that is what he is ending’ – the decades of hostilities from Iran.

‘They are a continuous ongoing threat to the United States,’ Mast said. ‘Enough is enough.’ 

Trump has remained publicly committed to the Iran campaign, while War Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing a fresh challenge from Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who introduced articles of impeachment accusing him of unlawfully continuing military action 

The House has approved a war powers resolution that would halt the president’s ability to continue military action without congressional approval, except when necessary to defend the United States, an ally or partner from an ‘imminent attack’

The War Powers Resolution of 1973 would give Congress a mechanism to limit the president’s use of military force without congressional authorization. 

The action is likely the last House vote on the Iran war ahead of the midterm elections, where the conflict overseas is playing a substantial role in the political campaigns. 

Before voting even began, Representative Thomas Massie read aloud articles of impeachment against War Secretary Pete Hegseth, putting the secretary’s conduct during the Iran war in the spotlight.

He accused Hegseth of unlawfully continuing US military action against Iran without proper authorization from Congress.

Massie’s move could force House Republicans into an uncomfortable showdown over Hegseth’s conduct, although impeachment itself is far from certain. 

The Kentucky congressman filed the measure as a privileged resolution, meaning the House must take it up within two legislative days, setting the stage for a potentially explosive vote.

It came as a damning report from the Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General revealed that the war in Iran has cost the United States at least $33.4 billion as hundreds of destroyed buildings and dozens of aircrafts remain unaccounted for. 

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced she wanted to add Canada as an associate member  

Meanwhile Trump faced a new threat on the international stage on Wednesday, when European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced she wanted to add Canada as an associate member.

During the top Eurocrat’s annual State of the Union speech to the European Parliament, she repeatedly love-bombed Canadian premier Mark Carney – who was in the chamber – saying Brussels wanted ‘to bring the relationship with Canada to the highest level possible.’

‘Dear Mark, I said we must urgently reimagine our partnerships. So, I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to be the first associate member of the EU,’ she said, to the surprise of the EU’s 27 member states.

‘We share one ocean, one set of values, one way of seeing the world. And we will now build our shared future as well – thank you for being here.’

But the attempt to flatter Carney faltered, with diplomats telling the Daily Mail they were never briefed about the proposal and that ‘associate membership’ doesn’t exist.

The EU diplomats accused Brussels of ‘over-reach’, with one going as far as to call the announcement ‘bombastic.’

Carney looked on as von der Leyen heaped praise onto him and his nation

‘There will be a summit at the end of October, so logically they will talk about deepening the relations,’ the diplomat said.

‘But no one has ever seen an associate membership and no idea what it means in practice. Canada is a valuable partner for the EU, one of the few currently in the world where we share the values, so it is nothing against Canada.

‘But first and foremost the member states should be the ones to express what kind of relationship the EU wants to have with any third country.’

Another told the Daily Mail von der Leyen ‘kept this bit of associate membership out of the text until the last moment. She also did not mention it up front to EU member states.

‘It seems like she is a bit too far out in floating this. Everyone is positive about Canada, and wants to strengthen the relationship.

‘But there is a lot of uncertainty about what von der Leyen envisages by coining this label.’

Samie Longchambon has revealed she will be a panellist on Loose Women and starred in her first episode today (Wednesday, September 16).

Loose Women has gone through a few major changes this year after two panellists, Denise Welch and Nadia Sawalha, left the show.

Samie Longchambon joins Loose Women

Samie announced the news via Instagram yesterday and said: “I just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow I’m going to be a loose lady, I’m going to be on the panel of Loose Women.

“I’ve never actually been on the panel before, I’ve been a guest but I’ve never actually sat there for the whole show chatting, so I’m really looking forward to it.

“I’m also slightly nervous but they do say do something every day that scares you, so that’s what mine’s going to be tomorrow.

“So if you’re around, it’s half 12 until half one, so grab a brew and join us.”

Samie was joined on the panel by Katie Piper, Christine Lampard, and Katie Piper.

Samie is best known for playing Maria Connor on Coronation Street and has appeared in over 1,900 episodes.

Samie has also starred in several other shows including Heartbeat, Doctors, and The Cops.

What is Loose Women?

Loose Women is a talk show that is broadcast on weekdays during the day.

The show features a panel of four women who talk about aspects of their lives and discuss topical issues from politics and current trending news to entertainment and celebrity gossip.

Loose Women features other guest stars who are interviewed during the show.

Kaye Adams and Nadia Sawalha were the original presenters on the show with a range of other panellists including Coleen Nolan, Jane McDonald, Sally Lindsay and Janet Street-Porter joining the show since it first started.

In recent years, the show has been presented by Kaye Adams, Ruth Langsford, Christine Lampard, and Charlene White.

Some of the current panellists include GK Barry, Olivia Attwood, and Oti Mabuse.

Are you excited to watch Samie Longchambon as a panellist on Loose Women? Let us know in the comments.

The small plane crashed high in the mountains in Switzerland on Tuesday

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Two Britons are among three people confirmed to have lost their lives following a plane crash in the Swiss Alps.

The light aircraft came down high in the mountains near the town of Leukerbad, in the southern canton of Valais, Switzerland, on Tuesday, September 15.

All three passengers aboard the aircraft perished, with police working to identify the victims, though two have been confirmed as British nationals.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has confirmed it is “providing support to the families of two British nationals who died in Switzerland”.

The body added: “Our thoughts remain with the families during this difficult time.”

The Cirrus SR22T aircraft departed from Sion Airport in the Rhône Valley before striking a mountain slope in the Fluhalp area approximately 10 minutes later, for reasons that remain unclear.

The plane had originally flown from Lugano, in the southern Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, before making a stop at Sion.

Local residents swiftly alerted the emergency services after spotting smoke rising from the stricken aircraft shortly after 4pm.

Three helicopters and two rescue specialists were among the team dispatched to the scene.

Swiss federal authorities have launched a formal investigation into the crash, alongside a criminal inquiry by the Office of the Attorney General of the Confederation and the Valais cantonal police.

Images released by local police show the wreckage of the aircraft strewn across the mountainside.

The local force stated: “Shortly after 4pm, for reasons yet to be determined, the aircraft collided with the northern slope of a mountain in the Fluhalp area of Leukerbad. Signs of smoke were subsequently reported in the region.”

Two men dressed in black were seen leaving the scene

A petrol station has been left with a smashed window and damaged shop front following a burglary. Police were called to the BP garage on Station Road in Bluntisham at 5.10am this morning (September 16).

Officers found damage to the front of the shop where a window had been smashed. E-cigarettes, tobacco and alcohol were taken, but the exact amount is unknown. Two men dressed in black were seen on CCTV leaving the scene in a silver Honda Jazz and headed towards Earith.

No arrests have been made but an investigation is ongoing.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: “Anyone with information or anyone who has CCTV or dashcam footage which may assist the investigation, is asked to report online www.cambs.police.uk quoting reference 35/71638/26 or call 101. Alternatively, contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111 or via www.crimestoppers-uk.org.”

Billionaire sports executive Robert Kraft and musician Ed Sheeran have each pledged $2 million toward humanitarian relief for Palestinians, following a public challenge from rapper Macklemore.

The financial commitments arrive in the wake of a controversy that began earlier in the month when Macklemore delivered a political speech and chanted “Free Palestine” on stage during a concert at MetLife Stadium, later leading to his removal from Sheeran’s Loop Tour. The rapper asserted that Kraft had influenced other venue proprietors to block him from performing.

Earlier on Wednesday, Macklemore announced via social media that he would distribute $1 million in net earnings generated from his appearances on Sheeran’s tour to organizations aiding Palestinians, while challenging Kraft to match the sum.

“With everything that has happened over the last 48 hours, I want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom,” Macklemore wrote on Instagram. “I will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people. And I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation.

“Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting. A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.”

In response, Kraft issued a statement published to the official Gillette Stadium X account, outlining that Sheeran had contacted him prior to the rapper’s public challenge.

“I have dedicated much of my life to building bridges between all people,” Kraft wrote. “I believe deeply that all lives are worth protecting. Earlier today, before Macklemore challenged me to match his donation, Ed called me and asked me to commit $2 million to match his donation to aid in the region to fight this humanitarian crisis.

“Ed now plans to reach out to other venue owners and our goal is to continue to work together to build bridges.”

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All other supporting acts on Sheeran’s tour quit after Macklemore was dropped. Danish band Lukas Graham, Irish singer Aaron Rowe, American singer Finneas and Irish folk band Beoga made their announcements roughly within an hour of each other Tuesday, as reported by the Associated Press.

Earlier the same day, Sheeran had posted his own statement explaining Macklemore’s departure.

“Macklemore coming off tour was the promoter’s decision, it was not mine,” Sheeran wrote in an Instagram post. “Macklemore’s contract for the tour was with the promoter, not me.”

In another slide of the post, he added: “I am not complicit. I have my personal views on this devastating conflict. Just because I choose not to speak publicly, it doesn’t mean I don’t have them, and it doesn’t mean I don’t care. Nor does it mean I don’t support causes in my own, personal way.”

The warning sign of leatherjacket infestation

How to prevent leatherjackets from destroying your lawn

Setting out the EU’s political and policy priorities for the year ahead, von der Leyen also proposed the formation of a European Security Council, which would include the UK and Ukraine, amid an ongoing threat to the continent from Russia.

“For a long time, we have discussed a leaders’ format focused on the security of our continent, with partners like Canada, Norway, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and others involved,” she said in the wide-ranging address.

“This is even more urgent now, given the nature and scale of the risks at play. This is why we will set out our ideas to make a European Security Council a reality.”

Calls for such a body have been growing since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

It was initially a French-German conception but more countries have shown support, particularly as Trump has questioned the Nato military alliance. Other nations worry such a council could unhelpfully rival Nato.

Von der Leyen said the EU was “strengthening our work with Nato” and that expanded defence spending would be “fully aligned” with the alliance.

But at the core of such a security council would be the ability to trigger an emergency meeting if one member felt under threat, similar to Nato’s Article 4.

The EU chief said it would be a “mechanism to flank” Article 4, a term that could be interpreted as complementing Nato functions or – if taken in a military context – bypassing them.

Alongside global threats, von der Leyen also said many European families were worried about the cost of living, and the “dizzying speed of change” of technology and its impacts on jobs and society.

Other proposals included inviting the world’s largest AI labs for talks on how to support industry efforts to pace the frontier, as well as slashing bureaucracy for businesses in the EU.

Plans to curb social media use among children, including banning platforms for under 13s, were also put forward. Under the proposal, children aged 13 to 15 would only be able to set up social media accounts which are supervised by parents.

A new emergency tool to help countries better deal with mass migration movements following the deadly influx of migrants to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in July would also be outlined.

The pledge chimes with the message of European politicians on the right and hard right who have gained support in recent years for proposing a tougher approach.

Some of them called the mass attempt to enter the EU through Ceuta an “invasion” and argued asylum rules should be suspended to deal with such a crisis.

Von der Leyen said the new emergency tool would “only be triggered under a strictly defined set of criteria” and for a specific period of time, and that fundamental rights would be protected.

Human rights groups worry such a move would see vulnerable people, including women and children, turned back and denied the protection afforded to them under international law.

When The Great British Bake Off returns for its 17th series this autumn, viewers will be greeted by a new judge – Nigella Lawson. There are connections between Lawson’s domestic goddess persona and the world of Bake Off, which make her a logical choice for the show’s new judge.

For more than two decades, Lawson has occupied a distinctive place in British food culture. Since the publication of How to Be a Domestic Goddess (2000), she has cultivated a tongue-in-cheek persona that reimagined domestic labour for the noughties generation.

The title of Lawson’s cookbook was deliberately provocative. At a time when domesticity was often framed as something women should escape, Lawson embraced and reinvented its language. Her domestic goddess persona was neither the dutiful housewife nor the professional celebrity chef. Instead, she offered a mode of culinary femininity that was sensual, confessional and self-consciously performative.

As I argue in my new book, Women, Food, Performance: The Tyranny of the Domestic Goddess, the persona Lawson popularised remains a defining cultural figure through which the fantasies and contradictions of food, femininity and domesticity are performed and negotiated.

Cooking, in Lawson’s world, is less about obligation than pleasure, transforming the kitchen into a space of self-expression.

This is where the first alignment with Bake Off emerges. Although framed as a competition, the programme has become a key stage for telling stories about family, heritage, local identity and nationhood, generating powerful narratives of togetherness and belonging.

Since 2010, Bake Off has helped revive interest in home baking in Britain, positioning baking as a meaningful social and cultural practice. Audiences invest in contestants’ journeys and discuss weekly challenges and disasters. It not only represents community through baking but also actively produces it through shared spectatorship.

Who can be a ‘star’ baker?

A second alignment lies in their shared celebration of amateurism.

Lawson has always identified as a home cook rather than a professional chef. Through autobiographical storytelling and stylised television aesthetics, she celebrates everyday pleasures and amateur culinary creativity, inviting audiences into an aspirational yet accessible world.

Similarly, Bake Off emphasises encouragement, camaraderie and amateur expertise. Contestants are valued not only for their technical skill but also for qualities associated with home baking: patience, generosity and care. The programme’s enduring appeal rests on the idea that ordinary people can create extraordinary things, a vision central to Lawson’s construction of the amateur cook.

Yet, despite its reputation for kindness and camaraderie, Bake Off is also a place where particular baking identities are produced, judged and legitimised. Contestants perform their skills before judges whose authority rests on established ideals of expertise, tradition and taste.

Women contestants have frequently faced scrutiny of their appearance, competence and emotions. This was reflected in the experiences of former contestants Ruby Tandoh and Nadiya Hussain, who have spoken publicly about sexism, racism and the heightened scrutiny surrounding their participation in the programme. The tent, then, is not simply a celebration of baking but a space where the figure of the star baker, and who gets to embody it, is continually negotiated.

Lawson’s presence brings these questions into sharper focus. Through television, cookery writing and the domestic goddess persona, she has spent over 25 years shaping understandings of food and femininity. Her significance lies in her ability to connect food to the intimate textures of everyday life. She does this by using cooking to organise and aestheticise the messy realities of pleasure, care, family and domesticity into a coherent and aspirational way of living.

Tongue-in-cheek cooking

Perhaps the strongest connection between Lawson and Bake Off is their investment in domestic fantasy. Neither presents baking as an obligatory feminine duty. Instead, they turn it into a pleasurable performance, inviting audiences to enjoy idealised visions of home, tradition and community while recognising their artifice.

Their shared irony lies in presenting baking as both sincere and self-conscious. It is a source of genuine comfort and connection, but also a carefully staged cultural performance. This sensibility can be seen in their similar use of humour and innuendo. Whether through Lawson’s flirtatious descriptions of food or Bake Off’s famous “soggy bottoms”, both cultivate an affectionate, self-aware approach to domesticity that prevents baking from becoming too earnest or moralising.

Twenty-six years after How to Be a Domestic Goddess, the “domestic goddess” figure that Lawson popularised continues to resonate because it captures a persistent cultural contradiction. Domesticity remains a powerful source of pleasure and creativity even as its relationship to gender remains contested. Both Lawson and Bake Off thrive by inhabiting this tension, inviting us to enjoy the comforts of home and tradition while acknowledging that they are also cultural performances.

Lawson remains influential because she embodies a form of femininity that is modern and traditional, glamorous and domestic, privileged and somehow also ordinary. Her arrival in the Bake Off tent speaks to her ability to make a highly classed and culturally privileged version of British femininity feel warm, intimate and attainable.

Beneath the cakes, bunting and good humour lies an ongoing negotiation over who gets to represent culinary culture, what expertise matters and how domestic life is valued, desired and performed.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Lena Dunham, creator of the hit TV series Girls, has welcomed her first child with husband Luis Felber via a surrogate.

The writer and actress announced the birth of her daughter in an op-ed published by Vogue on Wednesday, where she wrote she was “bashful and dizzy with joy”.

Dunham, 40, has spoken publicly about her struggles with fertility and chronic illness, and grief around her dreams of motherhood after undergoing a hysterectomy when she was 31 years old.

Of meeting her surrogate, she wrote in Vogue: “While I’ve been known to make friends quickly – airport terminals, veterinary offices – ​this was the quickest leap from first coffee to gynecological procedure I’d ever done.”

In the op-ed, Dunham wrote about the moment she met her daughter, who she said announced herself “13 days late, in the face of a solar eclipse and a meteor shower”.

“I sat on a hospital bed, between the legs of a woman I hadn’t known a year ago, waiting for a glimpse of this person who I had been waiting for with something related to patience, but also none at all,” she wrote.

“I forgot to look down until I heard our baby’s cry. I saw her face, gasping just as she did. Her eyes, wide and unfocused, taking in the light and shadow, blinking rapidly.”

Dunham has written extensively about her experience with endometriosis and its impact on her plans to have a family.

“The moment I lost my fertility, I started searching for a baby,” she said in her memoir Famesick, which was published in April 2026.

Detailing the gruelling process of extracting her eggs during the pandemic, Dunham said would lie on her couch “one day obsessed with adoption and another, dying to locate a surrogate – one day sure I’d be fine if I never had children, and the next convinced my life had been a waste”.

Years later, in June 2025, Dunham told the Times that she and Felber were “in the process of expanding our family in new ways”, but refused to be drawn on how.

“I want to safely meet our children and then figure out how to talk about it,” she told the paper.

In an earlier essay for Harper’s Magazine, in 2020, the writer said it is ironic that “knowing I cannot have a child – my ability to accept that and move on – may be the only reason I deserve to be anyone’s parent at all. I think I finally have something to teach somebody.”